SHARE Oxford

Since 2021, Great Big Green Week has given communities across the UK the opportunity to celebrate and join in with activities that help reduce waste, protect nature, and tackle climate change. This year, the focus is on swapping – swapping stuff like clothes and books, but also plants and seeds, and even skills, helping people save money, extending the life of the things we use, reducing the amount of waste going to landfill, and bringing communities together.

“Let’s swap together for good”

Swapping is at the heart of what we do at SHARE Oxford: not only with our library of things to give people the opportunity to borrow items rather than buy them, but also repair cafes, where our lovely volunteers bring broken things back to life. For this year’s Great Big Green Week we want to focus on sharing skills – helping people develop new skills and the confidence to use them to fix their own stuff, and maybe even find a new hobby!

Learn sustainable skills this Great Big Green Week

If you’re keen to learn something new, here are some of the skills-focused events taking place in and around Oxford during the week:

Makespace Oxford Living Fibre weaving – Saturday 7 June, 10am – 12pm – part of a series with Fred Branson learning how to forage natural fibres, work them into cords and weave beautiful natural creations.

Tech Rescue – Monday 9th June, 11am-3pm – our volunteers can help you keep your old IT working smoothly, help you manage the move on from Windows 10 or prepare to pass on your unwanted devices to the community.

Woodwork tool sharpening with Lu from Oxford Furniture Makers – Thursday 12th June 11am-12:30pm – learn how to keep your tools in perfect condition and explore traditional woodworking techniques with Lu from Oxford Furniture Makers – bookings opening 19 May

Bike repair basics with Piotr from EOF Hackspace – Saturday 14th June, 11am – 2pm – Piotr will take you through the basics of servicing your bike and managing simple repairs so you have the confidence to keep it in great condition.

Broken spoke bike repair workshops – there are all sorts of options for learning bike repair with Broken spoke including slots during the week, or it’s a good option if you can’t make our session this week! 

Electrical repair basics at our repair café – Sunday 15th June, 2-5pm – alongside our usual “bring your stuff to fix” offering, our electrical repair team will be demonstrating some of the key steps for successful electrical repairs – eg opening things up carefully so they can go back together, checking for electrical continuity and the key basics of electrical safety. Check for the “electrical repair demo” slots at 2pm in our booking form.!

And the SHARE Oxford team is out and about

Our team will also be pleased to see you and talk about all things sharing and repairing at these events:

Makespace Oxford plant swap – Saturday 7 June, 11am – 2pm – bring along your plants and seeds that you want to swap with other growers. Also swap stories and knowledge of growing the plants you love.

THRIVE Oxford with Oxford Climate Collective – Saturday 7th June 10am – 4pm – a celebration of sustainable community showcasing local initiatives around the themes of food, travel, energy, nature and reducing waste. 

Oxford City Farm’s Great Big Green Week Celebration – Saturday 14th June 10am – 2pm – we’ll be with our friends from the WISH network sharing all sorts of activities and updates from across the network as we work to build a circular economy for Oxfordshire.

So much going on across the county!

You’ll find lots going on across Oxfordshire on the Great Big Green Week website and CAG Oxfordshire’s pages. Maybe it’ll inspire you to host something yourself. If you’d like us to help you put something on or spread the word, do get in touch.

We’re pleased to share the annual report for our most recent financial year to June 2024.

Opening three days a week helped drive a 30% increase in activity at our Library of Things, the repair team fixed more than 1 tonne of stuff, and we continued to develop partnerships and new activities, including all things Circular Economy with the WISH network and saving IT from the bin with Tech Rescue.

Whether you’re a volunteer, customer, partner or funder, thank you for the part you played in making it happen!

Read the full report here, and as ever, do feel free to get in touch with any questions or feedback.

Windows 10 users will doubtless have seen warnings that Microsoft are ending support in October. If your computer isn’t modern enough for Windows 11, there are some great options to keep it useful for longer. These solutions often work well if you have an older Mac too. Our tech rescue volunteers would be happy to help you work out what’s best for you and make the move.

The challenge

“End of support” for a Windows system means that Microsoft stop providing updates. Your computer will continue to work, but there are two issues which both become more of a problem over time:

• Security updates stop – Microsoft won’t fix any new security holes that are discovered, leaving you increasingly exposed to malware and viruses
• Newer software and websites won’t work – as software and websites are updated, they’ll gradually stop designing to be compatible with this version of Windows. At some point, the internet security certificates may also expire so you’ll lose access to websites.

Options to consider

It may be the right time for you to replace your computer for something speedier and the latest Microsoft tools, but if you can’t afford to right now or don’t feel you need the latest and fastest, there are some great options which are free or much cheaper than a new computer. You’ll just need to make sure you can run all the key apps you need and take care with your data if you’re switching.

• Windows 10 extended security updates – Microsoft do offer an option of paying $30/yr to continue to receive security updates for Windows 10.
• Update October 2025 – we now understand that for many users, this year-long extension can be free! Find out more here.
• Windows 11 clean install – with their latest release, Microsoft have enabled Windows 11 to work on older computers. In our testing, this only seems to work on older PCs if you back up your data, wipe and reset your computer, and there’s a risk certain features like webcams may not be 100% compatible, but it’s great to see more computers should keep working. There’s a fairly simple installer from Microsoft to help you set up the USB stick you’ll need to do this.
• Google Chrome OS Flex – this free system from Google is our favourite; we run everything on it at SHARE. It works particularly well if you already do almost everything via the browser. You’ll find your computer a lot faster as well as keeping those security updates going. With a free web-based version of Microsoft Office available as well as cloud storage and the Google Play store, you might be surprised how much you can do. It’s free to download and set up a USB installer.
• Linux – another free option, Linux is more flexible than Chrome OS and has come a long way from being just for hardened techies. There are many distributions to suit different users. I’m a fan of Ubuntu, which is easy to install, feels familiar to anyone who’s used Windows or a Mac and has features like an App Store to make downloading software easy. If you want to keep a really old PC going, distributions such as Linux Mint Debian Edition are even still supported on 32-bit computers. For more advanced users than me, there are even tools like Wine which let you run Windows software.

A quick internet search will show there are other “unsupported” approaches to get older computers onto Windows 11 or patch Macs to run the latest macOS. These might work for you but we’re not recommending them as they will be unpredictable and possibly break terms of the software licenses you’re signing up to.

All good for Apple Macs

The good news is that most of this article’s advice applies to Apple Mac users as well; Chrome OS and Ubuntu installers will work on almost all Macs with intel chips.

Need help deciding?

Here are a few key points comparing these options:

Option	Pros	Cons
Windows 10 Extended Support	Keeps your Windows 10 computer secure if you’re not ready to change. No need to move your data.	Costs $30/yr, possibly just a 1-year option
Windows 11 clean install	Keep going with Windows and the apps you need (so long as you can reinstall them)	Windows 11 is slow on older PCs. You’ll likely need to wipe your computer and move your data.
Google Chrome OS Flex	Faster than Windows, Synchronises Chrome Browser passwords and links, easy to use with a google login	You’ll need to migrate your data to the cloud and it may not run the apps you use today. DVD drives not supported.
Linux	Flexible with plenty of tools and still works with DVDs etc. Can work on very old computers.	A little more complex than Chrome OS.

Making your plan

If you’re interested to try any of the options other than paying the $30/yr to keep Windows 10 going, you’ll be wiping your computer. Let’s make sure you’re ready to go:

• What applications do I use? – there are online versions or equivalents for almost everything these days such as Microsoft Office, Google’s many tools for Office work, photos and more, to Canva for graphics etc. Go through the Start menu on your computer and note the software you are using. You can try out the online versions straight away before changing anything on your computer to make sure you’re happy with them.
• What files do I have? – as well as the documents, photos and music folders, you will find documents on your desktop, downloads folder, maybe elsewhere on your C: drive. Make sure you’ve found everything you want to keep.
• Plan for your files – as well as deciding which files to keep and where to store them, this is a good moment to check if any of them need special software on this computer to open. What will you do with those old study notes from years ago on your new computer?
• Backup, including cloud storage – cloud storage like OneDrive, Google Drive, DropBox can be a great option to get all your files safely uploaded before wiping your PC. Log into the webpage for your cloud storage (say dropbox.com or office.com) and make sure you can see everything there so you know you’re ready to go. If you have so many large files that cloud would be expensive, you’ll want to buy a hard disk or USB stick to copy everything onto.
• Which system will suit you? – looking at your applications and files should help you decide which system you’d like to migrate to – fresh Windows 11, Chrome OS or Linux?
• Choose your browser, sync your passwords and links – if you’re moving to Chrome OS, get set up with Google’s Chrome browser and make sure you’re signed in and you’ll be ready to go with your new setup. FireFox is a great choice for Linux as it’s generally built in from the word go, although Google Chrome is also available for many distributions. You can migrate your browser data from Microsoft Edge to either of these ones, ready to sync to the cloud.
• What passwords do you need? – make sure you’re set for your email, any Google or Microsoft accounts and key software subscriptions you use, such as DropBox.

If you do need to upgrade, secondhand is a great option

If, looking at your needs, you decide to upgrade your computer to something Windows 11 capable, there are some great-value refurbished resellers out there. I’ve used Stone Refurb and Blackmore IT before and they’re offering Windows 11 laptops from £170.

We would also be happy to help you pass on your old PC. We accept old laptops, tablets or phones for our partners Getting Oxfordshire Online where they are securely wiped and passed on to groups supporting people in need. If you have a desktop you need to shift, for £20 we can take it off your hands, securely wipe it and we’ll either sell it or Freecycle it to keep it in use even if it’s not got any value.

Before you make the leap

We’re conscious it’s a big step to wipe your computer, and we’re keen to help where we can. Here are some ideas:

• Work in your web browser – both the Chrome OS and Linux options often work well doing as much work as possible in the browser. You can give it a try for a few weeks in Chrome or Firefox browser on your existing Windows 10 PC to make sure everything’s working well.
• Try out a SHARE computer – we have both Chrome OS and Linux computers here at SHARE so do feel free to book yourself in for Tech Rescue to have a go with our computers and ask any questions. If you’re planning to use Chrome, you can even log in with your google account and make sure everything’s ready as you’ll want it on your new computer.
• Is it worth buying secondhand then selling yours? – if you’re worried about getting something wrong and losing everything, a secondhand PC could offer a good security step. You can get it all set up and check you like the new system you’ve chosen before wiping your data from your old PC, then give away or sell on one of the two. Secondhand non-Windows-11 computers are great value and we can offer Chrome OS or Linux desktops from £30-80. We’re also considering hiring laptops for this purpose so please get in touch if interested.

The time has come

Your data’s ready in the cloud or on your external hard disk, you’ve decided on a plan for each app you use, you’ve trialled working in your browser or on a second computer… it’s time to get your PC wiped and reset.

DIY: you’ll just need a USB stick at least 8GB in size, that you’ll wipe to make the installer. Here are download links and instructions for the installers we’ve mentioned:

• Windows 11
• Chrome OS Flex
• Ubuntu Linux

Or Tech Rescue can help: we have the relevant installers with us at SHARE, so book yourself in for a Tech Rescue session if you’d like us to do this step with you. We have screens and keyboards if you’d like to bring your desktop computer in.

Read more

It’s great to spot more campaigns out there as national and international groups are sharing knowledge and helping people find local experts. You can read more at:

• Restart project’s guides for End of Windows 10 community sessions has some good summaries of what to double check when helping someone change their PC
• endof10.org is an international page to help you find local support wherever you are in the world

Questions?

If you’ve got any questions or suggestions, please do get in touch with Ben at hello@shareoxford.org. He would be happy to discuss our options for help via Tech Rescue or otherwise.

You may remember our announcement last year that we’re a partner in Cherwell Collective’s WISH network of more than 30 organisations.

WISH (Waste Innovation Station) has received £1.5m from the National Lottery Community Climate Action Fund over five years to build climate resilience and infrastructure across Oxfordshire.

Growing together

We’re hugely grateful for the £7-9k/yr which we receive to contribute to management, outreach and impact analysis here at SHARE Oxford, and in particular the support of the network partners, from whom we collaborate on circular economy initiatives and learn about the context in which we operate, from food and nature to carbon and community.

The network’s first impact report gives a great snapshot of what we’ve all been up to!

We look forward to sharing more in our next SHARE annual report, due very soon, and if you have any questions or thoughts in the mean time, do get in touch with Ben at hello@shareoxford.org.

Srishti, one of our volunteers here at SHARE, has been investigating the difference our thermal imaging cameras have been making for people since our first one was donated in 2022.

Thank you to all of our customers who responded to her survey and shared what you’ve been up to, finding and filling draughty gaps, spotting water leaks, checking the performance of new insulation or more. We’re also grateful for your feedback on how we can make these cameras more useful for people, particularly those using them for the first time.

Connected with LCON

More than half of respondents have been using our cameras in conjunction with Low Carbon Oxford North’s excellent Housewarming programme. If you’re wondering where to start with your home, this is a really great resource, backed up by a brilliant local team who can help you with first steps.

Keen to try for yourself?

And if you’re interested to hire one of the thermal cameras for yourself, they’re available here:

We hope you find Srishti’s report useful and, as ever, if you have any questions, do give a shout at hello@shareoxford.org.

With only a month to go until the big day, many of us are thinking about seasonal shopping, whether that’s finding a sparkly jumper for the Christmas party, or buying presents for friends and family. If you’re keen to make your Christmas a bit more sustainable, here are some ideas for all the fun with less environmental impact.

First the bad news…

It’s not just our bank balances and waistbands that can feel the effects of the Christmas season; all that consumption also damages the environment. It creates mountains of waste; in the UK that includes around 365,000 kilometres of unrecyclable wrapping paper (enough to wrap around the equator nine times), 100,000 tonnes of plastic packaging, and 54 million plates of wasted food. And then there’s the impact of the stuff we buy; fast fashion (you can read our article about that here!), toys, novelty gifts, many made with plastic derived from fossil fuels, usually manufactured in China, and transported across the world. According to a coalition of ‘high ambition’ nations trying to reduce plastic pollution, the world will be unable to cope with the volume of plastic waste within a decade, and while it is important to increase recycling and waste management, these will be insufficient without a significant reduction in the manufacture and use of plastic. And if that isn’t enough of an incentive, plastics are widely recognised as a threat to health (human and others), biodiversity, and climate.

Packaging is a significant contributor to the tide of plastic and other waste. While buying online is quick and easy, all those packages have many downsides: vast amounts of resources are used not only to make the goods but also to pack and ship them: 3 billion trees are pulped every year to produce shipping cartons; transport and return of goods is responsible for 37% of global greenhouse gas emissions; and that impact increases if shoppers opt for fast delivery. And even once they reach their intended recipient, many items will be thrown away unused; around £42 million worth of unwanted Christmas presents are sent to landfill every year. If you want to check out more of the facts and figures there is a very comprehensive article here.

Enjoying new traditions

Deck the halls

• Artificial Christmas trees need to be used for at least 12 years to exceed the carbon footprint of a real tree that ends up as wood chips or on a bonfire, or sent to landfill. You can reduce the carbon footprint of a real tree even further by buying one in a pot that you can keep in the garden, or even hire one for the festive season. Many councils (including Oxford) will collect Christmas trees in January.
• Instead of plastic tinsel, look for decorations made of more sustainable material, or make your own:
  • Foliage can look lovely draped on mantelpieces or bannisters, and can be used to make your own wreath.
  • Use old paper (or maybe leftover scraps of wrapping paper!) to make paper chains
  • Add some lovely Christmassy scent to your home with orange slice decorations
  • Make some beautiful paper doves, or try one of the other papercrafts
  • Use our pompom maker to make some festive woollen decorations!
  • Treat your garden birds to a festive seedcake

Gifts

• Shop local: there are lots of independent shops in Oxford, selling everything from clothing and gifts to books and toys. If you’re free on Sunday 1 December, why not pop along to the Green Fair at the Oxford Town Hall, where you can shop for ethically sourced and local gifts.
• If you’re buying tech like smartphones or laptops, consider refurbished rather than new; they are usually cheaper, and will come with a guarantee, sometimes extras like virus protection and if you buy from one of our many local stores, the benefit of being able to pop in if you need help with it.
• Get crafty and make you own presents: if you’re looking for inspiration we have a flower press, sewing machines, a pyrography kit, and lots and lots of tools; we also have a food dehydrator, jam and sugar thermometers, chocolate moulds large pans if you are getting creative in the kitchen!
• Buy recyclable wrapping paper (make sure it doesn’t have any glitter, and is made of paper rather than plastic – can you scrunch it up?), and use paper tape rather than plastic. Or make your own wrapping; you could even borrow one of our sewing machines and make reusable fabric wrappers! Or re-use gift bags you have received.

Food/entertaining

• Buy locally grown food; you’ll be supporting local farmers and other producers, and reducing the carbon footprint of your meals.
• Reduce food waste by planning your meals over the festive season, only buying and cooking what you need, and reusing or freezing leftovers.
• If you’re cooking something you don’t normally have, or for more people than usual, borrow rather than buy kitchen equipment like our fish kettle, large cooking pot, or large colander.
• If you’re having a party, why not borrow some of our party kit? We have a chocolate fountain, a chocolate drinks maker, candy floss makers, bubble machine, a disco light, even a glitter ball. And if you’re looking for something new and sparkly, or a festive jumper, why not try and find one secondhand? Sequins, glitter and synthetic fabrics are terrible for the environment, and you can pick up a unique outfit at a bargain price on sites like ebay, Vinted or thrift.plus.

We’d love to share your ideas too. Are you trying something new this year? Discovered a new store that could become a favourite? Been crafting and created something amazing? Or having a giggle if things didn’t quite turn out as expected? (Ben’s trying making more home-cooked gifts this year and is sure his family will love the jars of “cranberry gel” which didn’t quite set but still taste great!). If you want to share stories or pictures, drop us a line at hello@shareoxford.org

To celebrate Get Online Week, we had a successful second run of Tech Rescue, helping people to either keep their IT running or wipe and donate it to Getting Oxfordshire Online for people in need.

We thought it would be useful to share the sort of things we helped people with. If you’re wondering about volunteering to help others or maybe bring a question to us in future, here’s a flavour of what we’ve been doing.

Software snags

Sophie’s printer had stopped working on WiFi. We found that her Mac’s updated operating system needed her to give permission for an obscurely-named extension to access network devices for it to come back to life.

We helped Elizabeth un-pick Microsoft licensing linked to former work accounts. We discovered that she could move over to Microsoft 365, getting more space and the Office apps for less than the cost of her current subscription to DropBox. We also discussed next year’s end of support for Windows 10 and options for cheap refurbished laptops (such as Stone refurb or Blackmore).

Barbara was having trouble when Windows insisted she moved from the Mail app to Outlook. With a helpful call with her son to get through two-factor authentication, she was all set up on the new app.

Going sloooooooow

We helped Catherine reset her Android tablet to make it as fast as it could be and discussed the limited use and security risks of older devices. Brian also helped her move some ear pads from her broken headphones to some working ones, saving one pair from the bin. We checked the old laptop she’s using for zoom calls, removed as much software as we could to speed it up, agreed it wasn’t worth spending money on a solid state drive, cleared some stuck Windows updates and advised that she gives it an hour for updates to finish before using it if it’s been idle for a few days.

We discussed Chrome OS Flex with David as lightweight system for a laptop which was horribly slow on Windows. We also confirmed that his laptop keyboard had a hard-to-fix fault so provided him with an external one to plug in.

Better luck next time

We weren’t able to help Riccardo repair the key cap on his wireless keyboard but pointed him to eBay to ask a seller for a replacement. We tested his USB hard drive and it worked fine which helped him isolate an issue with it on his computer.

The graphics problem on Christine’s laptop also had us stumped so we recommended our friends at GigaFix who we hoped would recognise the issue and be able to advise if it’s repairable or not. We also struggled with another Elizabeth’s locked tablet, suggesting she went back to Vodafone who she bought it from.

In the quiet time?

Finally, in between visitors, Brian, who volunteered to help out this week, also looked over 25 laptops which were being scrapped by GOO, to double check that all the drives had been removed, ensuring no personal data was heading to the recyclers.

Thank you for the kit!

Thanks to everyone who donated three laptops and a tablet. You can read more about the homes Getting Oxfordshire Online find for them on their impact page. We are happy to take donations of laptops, tablets and phones for GOO any time we’re open on Monday, Thursday or Saturday!

Keen to help?

A big thank you to Brian who offered his time this week. We’re delighted with the response we’ve had from new volunteers and we’re hoping to set this up as a regular service. We’ll announce our next session in a newsletter soon. If you’re not already signed up, here’s the link!

If you want to get involved either running tech rescues here or, for example at your local community centre, please get in touch and we’ll look forward to collaborating with you!

Autumn has arrived (and here’s a lovely article from the BBC on when the season actually starts, meteorologically and astronomically!), so it’s time to embrace the wonderful bounty of seasonal food.

Here in the UK we are blessed with an abundance of seasonal fruit: apples, blackberries, damsons, plums, many available locally. If you’re lucky enough to have access to fruit trees, the Library of Things has some useful bits of kit to help you harvest your crop, including a long-handled fruit picker, and ladders to get to the hard to reach fruit at the top of the tree. If you’ve collected more than you can carry, we also have various buckets, wheelbarrows and festival wagons to transport your haul.

Help with harvesting

If you have more fruit than you can manage, there are several groups across Oxford that can help:

• Abundance Oxford harvest surplus fruit and redistribute it to local communities.
• The Oxford Food Hub collect and distribute all kinds of surplus food.
• Cherwell Collective runs the Harvest@Home initiative, which is helping to support those growing food in the local community. They also coordinate the Waste Innovation Station Hubs.
• You can find other local community action groups here, and if you’d like to find out more about other projects working to make healthy and sustainable food available to everyone in Oxfordshire, check out Good Food Oxford Oxfordshire.

Oxford City Farm were due to hold their Autumn Festival FUNdraiser on 5 October, but unfortunately they have been significantly impacted by the recent floods and have had to cancel the event. They are now crowdfunding to try and provide resilience to future extreme weather, and build back the loss of income both from the loss of the produce and their main fundraising event.

Autumn is also the best time of year to find fruit for free. Blackberries and elderberries have mostly finished for this year, but can be found along many footpaths in the city and beyond.

The Woodland Trust provides some useful advice about foraging safely and legally, as does the Oxford foraging and wild food map. 

Enjoying the fruits of your labours

Everyone has favourite autumn fruit recipes (personally I don’t think you can beat a traditional crumble!); for more ideas check out BBC Good Food for autumn dessert recipes. If you’re feeling adventurous the Woodland Trust has some ideas for things to make with elderberries and blackberries.

Don’t have the right kit? We can help! Borrow a large saucepan and thermometer for making jam, or our dehydrator to make healthy snacks and preserve your fruit for later use. We have two juicers, and two apple presses, one small for use at home, the other for larger groups. You can also borrow equipment from the other Libraries of Things in the county.

Preparing the garden for winter

Autumn is also a busy time for gardeners, and the National Trust has some great tips for things to do. You can borrow lots of gardening tools from the Library of Things. Oxford also has some great community gardens, including Barracks Lane Community Garden, Flo’s in Florence Park, Oxgrow near Abingdon Road, and  the Children’s Allotment in Cricket Road. Check out the community action groups website to find one near you!

We are excited to announce that Oxford will soon be home to a Remakery, a haven for makers, designers, materials entrepreneurs and artists with one thing in common – making objects and art from Oxford’s waste. It’s aimed at those artists and makers who lack space, materials and equipment and are willing to share their skills with others. The founders are looking for volunteers to help launch the movement, especially any digital media experts. Watch this space!

If you want to help, please write to: theremakeryoxford@gmail.com, or you can sign up to their newsletter here.

If you are an artist or maker interested in the movement, please complete this Short Survey

If you are interested in attending a remaking workshop, please complete the Workshop Research Survey  

If you would like to support the cause, they are fundraising through the Oxford Lottery which supports local good causes and offers prizes of up to £25,000. You can support them here: